Shogun series

I binge watched the new Shogun series over the past week. We were on a ski trip to Red Mountain in Rossland BC so we had plenty of time in the evening.

I thought it was pretty good. The sets and costumes were fantastic, as was the acting. However, I was often distracted by the scenery (more on that later).

My other half, who's Japanese, also seemed to enjoy it and didn't cringe at the Englishman's use of Japanese. (She nearly chocked listening to Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai). Of course, she also pointed out that while the important events portrayed in the movie did in fact occur, there is no record of an Englishman in the many Japanese history books. But if you think about it, his part was pretty insignificant when compared to the events depicted in the series.

Also, to any of you who have been to Japan and who have also been to southwest British Columbia will realise where this was filmed (Hint: in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Not Japan). Hence, my constantly saying, "hey, that looks like..."

I'm told that's possibly because 1) there's not many accessable wilderness places left in Japan. 2) Vancouver has a very large Japanese population to draw extras from. And 3) we have great crews and it's a lot cheaper to film in Canada.

All in all, I'm glad I watched the series. The attention to detail is quite impressive considering it is an American production. It's certainly far better than the Americanized-Japan version of the original.

#shogun #bcfilm #bcfilmlocation #japaneseseries #redmountain #rosslandbc #elbowsup